Jakob Fugger

Born

March 6, 1459

Died

December 30, 1525 (aged 66)

Known as

banker, merchant, entrepreneur

Jakob Fugger of the Lily, also known as Jakob Fugger the Rich or Jakob II, was a major German merchant, mining entrepreneur, and banker. He was a descendant of the Fugger merchant family located in the Free Imperial City of Augsburg. He was born there and later was elevated through marriage to Grand Burgher of Augsburg. Within a few decades, he expanded the family firm to a business operating in all of Europe. He began his education at the age of 14 in Venice, which also remained his main residence until 1487. At the same time, he was a cleric and held several prebends. American journalist Greg Steinmetz has estimated his overall wealth to be around 2% of the GDP of Europe at that time, the equivalent of around $400 billion adjusted to 2015.

Biography from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.